KISSIMMEE, Fla. — As Afton Kinkade made it up a flight of stairs and into the simulator cockpit, you can tell her passion really shines through.

• Girl, 11, uses AeroStar Training simulator to practice flying
• Afton Kinkade says she's always had a passion for aviation
• She was also featured in the film 'Fly Like a Girl'

“I would look up in the sky and see things that were flying and say, ‘I want to do that. That looks amazing, that’s cool,’” she said.

Kinkade was just 3 years old when she developed a clear love for aviation. Today she finds herself flying a Level D-Simulator of an Airbus 320 at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport.

She’s already logged nearly 30 hours of instructional airtime. Kinkade traveled from the Tampa Bay area, because this is the closest simulator to her of its kind.

The simulator is owned by AeroStar Training, the only school in the Americas that can train pilots to fly an A320 or B737 under the same roof. These simulators allow student trainees to do all of their pilot training in-house.

“In March we celebrate women and girls in aviation, so this was perfect timing to meet Afton and let her explore the (different) sides of aviation with simulation," said Deidra Toye the CEO for AeroStar Training. "It's going to be really cool that you flew on an Airbus 32 simulator when you’re 11-years-old.”

A successful landing on this simulator is one more milestone to a steady journey.

“I want to excel in aviation,” Kinkade said. “I might want to be a pilot, and I want to do everything in aviation that I can to help myself become what I want to be.”

AeroStar in Kissimmee is working on expanding by the end of this year. They will have five different simulators with a facility that’s about 30,000 square feet.

Kinkade was featured in the film Fly Like A Girl, which will be screening at the Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg from April 25 to April 28.

For more information on AeroStar, visit their website.